Blog / News

T&Cs
1. Promotion Description: Any competition will begin on the specified date on the promotion/competition at GMT until the stipulated date and time (the “Promotion Period”). By participating in the Competition, each entrant unconditionally accepts and agrees to comply with and abide by these Official Rules and the decisions of Laney Amplification(“Sponsor”), which shall be final and binding in all respects. Sponsor is responsible for the collection, submission or processing of Entries and the overall administration of the giveaway. Entrants should look solely to the Sponsor with any questions, comments or problems related to the Competition.

2. Eligibility: Open to entrants who are 16 Years or older. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Sponsor and their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, distributors, retailers, sales representatives, advertising and promotion agencies and each of their respective officers, directors and employees (collectively, the “Promotion Entities”), and members of their immediate families and/or persons living in the same household as such persons, are ineligible to enter the competition or win a prize.

3. Winner Selection: The winner of the ongoing competition will be selected from amongst all eligible Entries received throughout the Promotion Period.

4. GDPR: The Winner(s) will be notified via the email address provided at the time of submission to the competition and any personal data gathered, including but not limited to, the entrants name, contact details and, in the case of the winner(s), their preferred delivery address, will only be used to facilitate notification of their win and the subsequent delivery of the prize. The data will be held securely on Laney Amplification servers, processed to facilitate the administration of the competition and not used for any other activity, nor will it be shared with any third party of any kind. Laney Amplification will hold that data six weeks from competition closure in order to complete any deliveries, after which, all the entrants personal data will be deleted. Prize winners will be notified, at which time they can choose whether to be featured in the competition results video for use across Laney Amplification Social media outlets. These videos will remain in the Public Domain for an indefinite period. Prize winners who do not wish to be named in the competition results video for use across Laney Amplification Social Media outlets can choose to be anonymised or not mentioned at all and this decision will not affect their prize.

5. Winners: winner(s) will receive [1 predetermined product] Only one prize per person and per household will be awarded. Prizes cannot be transferred, redeemed for cash or substituted by winner. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole and absolute discretion to award a substitute prize of equal or greater value if a prize described in these Official Rules is unavailable or cannot be awarded, in whole or in part, for any reason. Restrictions, conditions, and limitations may apply. Sponsor will not replace any lost or stolen prize items. All federal, state and/or local taxes, fees, and surcharges are the sole responsibility of the prize winner. Failure to comply with the Official Rules will result in forfeiture of the prize.

6.Social Media Disclaimer: Entrants should understand that they are providing their information to the Sponsor and not to the specific social media platform. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with that social media platform.

It’s safe to say that Franz Ferdinand are not the band they were in 2002. In 2018, there is a monumental gulf between the sharp-suited, fresh-faced band that released Take Me Out in 2004 – and not just sartorially. Musically, their fifth album is as recklessly experimental as anything they’ve done before; in frontman Alex Kapranos’s own words, both “futuristic and naturalistic”, pushing things forward without resorting to computers, programming and studio trickery to fill in the gaps.

Given that they’re down one of their original members since 2013’s Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, you’d assume that there is a gap to be plugged. Yet in many ways, the omission of founding member and guitarist Nick McCarthy, who departed in 2016 after 14 years, has refocused the Glaswegians and set them on a new course; the foot-stomping, serrated riffs and singalong anthems like Take Me Out and Do You Want To? are fewer and further between here.

Indeed, the addition of two new members, meanwhile (guitarist Dino Bardot, formerly of Glasgow indie band The 1990s, along with producer Julian Corrie on keyboards) seems to have breathed new life into Kapranos and co; the post-punk sound that they made their name with in the mid-noughties is now replaced by a glitzy, synth-driven electro-pop vibe.

We are pleased to announce Bob Hardy, founding member and bassist for Franz Ferdinand has joined the Laney family.

Bob Hardy is the founding member and bass player for Franz Ferdinand.

Named for the Austro-Hungarian Archduke whose murder sparked World War I, Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand helped define the sound of the 2000s and 2010s with their mix of arty rock, dance music, dub, and more. In late 2001, singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos and bassist Bob Hardy began working on music together when they met Nick McCarthy, a classically trained pianist and double bass player who originally played drums for the group despite no prior experience as a drummer. The trio had rehearsed at McCarthy’s house for a while when they met and started playing with Paul Thomson, a former drummer for the Yummy Fur who felt like playing guitar instead. Eventually, McCarthy and Thomsonswitched to guitar and drums, and the band switched practice spaces, moving to an abandoned warehouse that they named the Chateau.

The Chateau became Franz Ferdinand’s headquarters, where they rehearsed and held rave-like events incorporating music and art (Hardy graduated from the Glasgow School of Art, and Thomson also posed as a life model there). The bandmembers needed a new rehearsal space once their illicit art parties were discovered by the police, and they found one in a Victorian courthouse and jail. By summer 2002, they’d recorded an EP’s worth of material that they intended to release themselves, but word of mouth about the band spread and Franz Ferdinand signed to Domino in the summer of 2003. The group’s EP Darts of Pleasure was released that fall, and the band spent the rest of the year supporting groups such as Hot Hot Heat and Interpol. Franz Ferdinand’s second single, Take Me Out, arrived in early 2004. The single propelled them to greater popularity in the U.K. and laid the groundwork for the band’s debut album. Franz Ferdinand was released in February 2004 in the U.K. and a month later stateside. That September, the album won the Mercury Prize over such artists as the Streets, Basement Jaxx, and Keane, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album in 2005 (“Take Me Out” received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal).

The band spent much of that year working on their more eclectic second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, with producer Rich Costey. Following its October 2005 release, the album was also nominated for Best Alternative Album, while its lead single “Do You Want To” earned a Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal nomination.

Franz Ferdinandbegan writing songs for their third album in 2005, but scrapped them for a fresh set that they planned to make into a “dirty pop” concept album. The band collaborated with a few producers to help them go in a more dance- and pop-influenced direction, including Erol Alkan and Xenomania, the production team behind many of Girls Aloud’s hits, before deciding on Dan Carey, who had worked with Kylie Minogue, CSS, Hot Chip, and Lily Allen. The song “Lucid Dreams” appeared on the soundtrack to Madden NFL 09 and was released in fall 2008; early in 2009, the single Ulysses arrived a week before the release of Franz Ferdinand’s third album, Tonight. That summer, the band released Blood, an album featuring dub-inspired remixes of Tonight’s songs. For 2011’s Record Store Day, Franz Ferdinand issued the Covers EP, which featured versions of Tonight songs by artists including LCD Soundsystem, ESG, and Peaches.

In 2015, Franz Ferdinandcollaborated with Sparks as FFS and released their self-titled album that June. The following year, McCarthy left the band. Franz Ferdinand added guitarist Dino Bardot (formerly of the band 1990s) and Miaoux Miaoux keyboardist Julian Corrie to the fold and made their live debut as a quintet in 2017. Later that year, they debuted the title track from their fifth album Always Ascending. Recorded with producer Philippe Zdar, it arrived in February 2018 and combined the band’s raw aesthetic with electronic experiments.

We are very pleased to announce the brand new MINI-LANEY Amps.
“Practice or perform any style, anywhere with a MINI-LANEY.”

Cute, compact and battery-powered MINI-LANEY amps deliver great guitar tone, any time, any place.
MINI-LANEY amps can also be mains operated, powered via the optional power adaptor (MINI-LANEY-PSU)
– perfect for desktop or backstage use.

The god of tone Mattias Eklundh with his Ironhearts will be performing a clinic tour in India.

He will be travelling extensively in India next month:

He is holding his freak guitar Camp India from 12th-17th February ( https://www.facebook.com/freakguitarcampindia/ ) and has been invited to play something called Engifest in Delhi the 18th February with the Delhi Technological University (big thing, +70,000 people) and also at the Swedish Embassy. He then returns to Mumbai 19th and most likely do two shows there 21st and 22nd.

Headstock Group CEO, James Laney, said, “We are very excited that this new alliance with EMD Music will allow us to positively meet the demands of the US market and give stronger and better representation of both Laney and HH Electronics in both the M.I. and Pro-Audio sectors.

EMD Music is a hugely successful company with a great track record of reaching dealers of all levels and types, offering reliable and efficient support, excellent supply chain management, and a proven sales force. We look forward to working closely with them to build our presence in the most influential market in the world.”

EMD Music Operations manager Andrew Swift added, “We are so impressed with the dedication and quality we see in the Laney staff and the product selection. We couldn’t have found a more perfect fit for our growing distribution model.”